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Just finished this magnificent novel.It is so rare in this day and age to find a book written with true artistry in the actualuse of words. The author elegantly capturesthe human-dog relationship. I have read the bad reviews on thissite it seems most people are upset at the ending.However as in life not everything turns out theway we want it to. If you are a dog lover thisis a must read book. Yes the endingcreated a visceral reaction. To me that is why this issuch an amazing book, it creates emotion in the reader.
The book started out great and held my attention easily but there were too many unanswered questions at the end. A very frustrating read.
I wanted the work to continue and someone there to lead it because after all this time, it felt incredibly worthwhile and important. I loved the book, the way the auther wrote the prose, the training techniques, though fictional, were fascinating, the characters were interesting and deeply thought out. I just finished the book and wanted to read what people thought about this book. I was uncertain what Essay would do as well. I got to the end and looked for more. I didn't like feeling that there wasn't something left to go on. I was sad to lose ALL the characters to tragedy. I was left unclear about the whole syringe thing, Dr Papineau,ether,the bottle, and Claude's vendetta.
Foremost: What happened that caused Claude to hate his brother so much that he sought out poison from a back-alley proprietor in Pusan. Edgar clicking his shoes and signing "There's no place like home," after his long sojourn in the woods, would have made a more believable ending.
Up until that point, the road the author paved was a mosaic of language and story that spoke of love, loyalty and commitment between man and his best friend. Then, all of a sudden, Edgar could see dead people, and it became a ghost story and a Stephen King-esque thriller.
The story of Edgar Sawtelle was absolutely beautiful until it took a detour into a dead end. So, when Essay and the litter mates (and even Forte) watch as their beloved master burns in the barn, and when Essay corrals all the dogs and the collective choice is made to go into he wild rather than be subjected to a life of human companionship, all I could do was scratch my head.
(SPOILER) Much of the book is spent on the family's devotion to breeding cognitively superior dogs. Much of the book is spent on the bond that develops between dog and master, and the unwavering loyalty and protectiveness that follows.
Then, there's the roster of answered questions. At 562 pages, Edgar Sawtelle was a waste of my time.
The Bible has made me weep, nature has made me weep, special moments in life have made me weep--but I have NEVER cried because a passage in a novel was too beautiful to stand."She had learned, in her life, that time lived inside you. I'm genuinely sorry for all those who feel cheated by the ending. This was never going to be "that" kind of book, where everything worked out just peachy keen in the end. Listen. I've read a handful of books in my life that linger, not just for days, but for always. Come on.I admit, Almondine's death was a wrench, and I had to fight down a surge of fury about it.
When she'd been young, she'd had an insatiable hunger for more of it, although she hadn't understood why. A book based (at least in part) on HAMLET didn't clue you in that this would be a tragedy. You are time, you breathe time. BUT that unspeakably beautiful chapter where we get inside Almondine's head, as she is looking for Edgar, thinking about him, makes up for it. Do you know, I actually gasped and tears came to my eyes entirely because of how beautiful the writing was. Now she held inside her a cacophony of times and lately it drowned out the world." Just that whole section of ALMONDINE in Book Four (Chequamegon) just Laid Me Out.I literally just finished the book a few minutes ago, so clearly I still have some processing to do, but this much I do know.
Edgar Sawtelle is very much one of those.
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